


tender we fall, quiet and alone

by bananuh



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Heavy Angst, M/M, Minor Violence, Not Really Character Death, Soul Stone (Marvel)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-04-24 15:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19175740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananuh/pseuds/bananuh
Summary: They stay embraced, chests pressed together until their breaths even out. Keith grips the back of Shiro’s collar, pulling at the fabric. Shiro’s hand rests warm against Keith’s neck, his fingers reaching up to sweep through the short hairs on his nape.“You win,” Shiro whispers.Keith pulls back with a breath of air. He moves to take a step but Shiro hooks a foot under his knee and pushes him down. Keith falls hard, Shiro’s metal hand pinning him to the ground.“Tell the team I love them.”or The Avengers Endgame AU that absolutely no one asked for.





	tender we fall, quiet and alone

**Author's Note:**

> I remember leaving the theater after seeing Endgame and walking home at 4 am in the rain with ONLY this AU in my mind and its just been slowly simmering up there for weeks so I finally decided to write it out because someone had to!!
> 
> Heads up: Avengers Endgame spoilers ahead!! but I wrote this with the idea that the reader has already seen the film because the fic does jump around a bit, so if you haven't seen it, this might not make total sense!! but ALSO if you have seen the movie just know that this ends much much differently!!! It will be happy!!! (you just have to suffer a lil first lol)

“Don't give me hope,” he mutters, rain rolling down his face and body, washing the blood from his clothes and hands.

Keith swallows and lifts his hand, willing his fingers to stop shaking. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give it to you sooner,” he answers, slowly reaching out to press his fingers into Shiro’s gloved palm.

The street is silent now, minus the repetitive pattering against Keith’s open umbrella. Bodies litter the ground around them, all unmoving. Hazy neon lights reflect off the growing puddles and broken glass.

It’s been five years since he’s seen the man in person, four since they last spoke on the phone. Dark circles and fresh scars dance across his face. His hair is shorter now, chopped roughly, as if he hacked away at it with one of his knives.

Keith remembers that night in Budapest. The dingy hotel bathroom where they stitched each other back together. Shiro’s head between Keith’s hands as he cropped his signature forelock and rubbed the drugstore bleach into his hair, the peroxide burning his nose. They didn’t have enough for his entire head so Keith stuck to just the front section. He remembers Shiro walking out from the bathroom once showered, asking Keith how he looks with that smile on his face, Keith clutching at his side to keep from reopening any of his recently administered stitches from unexpected laughter. 

It had been one of their first missions as partners and probably one of their toughest. But even after Keith’s brief experience as a lousy hairdresser, Shiro would still drag him into his mandated bathroom every few weeks and ask him for a new trim.

Shiro slowly grips Keith’s hand back. He lets the smaller man pull him under the umbrella and into the waiting car. 

 

* * *

 

Shiro turns to meet Keith, stars reflecting in his eyes, a soft, sacred smile adorning his face. They had talked about this, years and years ago, sprawled out on the roof of their old and long gone headquarters building. It had been just a joke then; leaving everything to go travel the stars. Shiro traced each constellation dancing over their heads for Keith. They had both fallen in love with space as kids, Keith just never had the same kind of freedom to dive into astrology book after book at a local library as Shiro did.

If the circumstances were different perhaps they could’ve stopped the ship and floated among the stars for a moment. Make up their own constellations. It’s not like the Greek ever reached these. Keith would name one of them after Shiro, one of the brightest, biggest stars.

“Far way from Budapest,” Shiro quips.

Keith matches his smile, turning back to soak in the impossible view. “Yeah,” he laughs, “far.”

 

* * *

 

The arrival on Vormir goes smoothly with the automated controls; the ship landing by the base of a scaling mountain. With a whoosh the airlock releases and the doors slide open, revealing the alien terrain to Shiro and Keith. According to Axca’s information they should be able to breathe the air here, so they forego their helmets when leaving the ship.

The planet is dark; it’s surrounding land and plants scorched black. A large moon sits in the sky, far closer than Earth’s. It appears as if it is stuck in a perpetual eclipse, a ring of gold encircling the perimeter, lighting up the sky with deep hues of purple and red. It’s beautiful, in an eerie way.

They quietly but quickly make their way up the mountain, both stuck in their own heads, reflecting on the past 24 hours and how much their world has since flipped. Anxiety sits heavy in Keith’s stomach, slowly rising up his esophagus and into his throat as they reach the top of the mountain. Something in the air feels off. A voice in his head tells him to reach out, grab Shiro’s hand, and pull him back down to the ship. To take off from this planet and fly and fly until they’re lost among foreign constellations and moons. Where they can talk, really talk, for the first time in years.

He squashes the thought. 

A hooded figure hovers at the peak, framed by stacks of stone and the never ending horizon, as if he's been waiting for their arrival. The figure glides over towards the two. Keith unintentionally shifts closer to Shiro.

“Welcome Shiro, son of Masahiko. Welcome Keith, son of Krolia.” The druid’s voice echoes against the rocks.

“Who are you?” Shiro barks, his prosthetic powering up beside him.

“Consider me a guide to you and to all who seek the soul stone,” The druid answers simply, ignoring the aggression seeping from Shiro’s tone.

Keith steps forward. “Tell us where it is and we’ll be on our way.”

“If only it were that easy. What you seek lies in front of you,” the cloaked figure floats backwards, towards the edge of the mountain.“As does what you fear.”

Keith raises his arm, pointing towards the cliff. “The stone is down there.” It wasn’t a question. 

“For one of you,” The druid turns towards Shiro. “For the other, in order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. An everlasting exchange. A soul for a soul”

 

* * *

 

“Maybe he’s making it up.” Shiro paces back and forth, hands pulling at his forelock, an old, nervous tick Keith hasn’t seen from him in years.

Keith sits on a scorched log, his chin resting in his hands. He lifts his head to lock eyes with Shiro. He shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

Shiro pauses, hands resting on his hips. “Just because he knows your mother’s name doesn’t mean any of this,” he gestures widely around himself,“-is real.”

“I didn’t,” Keith answers softly, his voice caught in his throat. Shiro’s face flinches with regret before he can replace it with a silent apology. Keith clears his throat and looks down at his hands, nervously fiddling with them. “Zarkon left here with the stone... without his son. It’s not a coincidence.”

Shiro purses his lips, turning his head to look past the cliff where the very stone they need lies. He looks back towards Keith. “No,” he reaffirms.

“Whatever it takes,” Keith responds, his stubbornness slipping through.

“Whatever it takes.” Shiro repeats.

Keith stands from his place on the log and steps towards Shiro. “If we don’t get that stone, billions of people stay dead,” he states, planting his feet in front of Shiro.

“Then I guess we both know who it has to be.” Shiro takes another step towards Keith, closing in the distance between the two.

Keith meets Shiro’s gaze, holding it.“I guess we do.”

“I’m starting to think we mean different people here, Keith.”

Keith shakes his head. “These last five years I’ve been trying to do one thing. Getting everybody back,” he says, his eyes dancing around as he tries to keep from crying. He brings his focus back to Shiro. “You think I want to do it? I’m trying to save your life,” he says with a pained smile. His shaking hands reach out to grasp Shiro’s.

Shiro grips back, sliding his thumbs over Keith’s knuckles. “Yeah, well I don’t want you to, how's that?” He asks with a soft huff of laughter. He tilts his head down to rest his forehead against Keith’s.  

“Keith, you know what I’ve done, you know what-” he swallows, his voice breaking, “what I’ve become.”

“I don’t judge people on their worst mistakes.”

“Maybe you should,” Shiro whispers.

“You didn’t,” Keith says firmly, pulling his face back to lock eyes with Shiro once again. 

He didn’t. Years and years ago with HYDRA and SHIELD breathing down both of their necks, Keith had pulled his lips close to Shiro’s ear and asked for help. Keith was Shiro’s mission, he was supposed to dispose of him, not lead him into SHIELD, into a new life. He had given him a second chance, one he most certainly did not deserve. One he refused to waste. 

Shiro smiles softly, tears filling his eyes. He reaches out to cradle the back of Keith’s head in his hand. “Okay,” he says, pulling him into the crook of his neck, warm breath ghosting over his ear. “Okay.”

They stay embraced, chests pressed together until their breaths even out. Keith grips the back of Shiro’s collar, pulling at the fabric. Shiro’s hand rests warm against Keith’s neck, his fingers reaching up to sweep through the short hairs on his nape.

“You win,” Shiro whispers.

Keith pulls back with a breath of air. He moves to take a step but Shiro hooks a foot under his knee and pushes him down. Keith falls hard, Shiro’s metal hand pinning him to the ground.

“Tell the team I love them.”

Keith grunts and twists, trying to free himself from the bigger man. Shiro presses down harder against his chest as a low level of electricity shoots from his palm and into Keith, stunning him. The shock ripples through him as Shiro gets up and starts running towards the cliff.

Keith, with every muscle twitching, moves to grab one of the modified knives from his waistband. He throws it into Shiro’s path, igniting an explosion that knocks him off his feet.

Shiro smacks his head against the tough ground with a sharp curse on his lips.

“Tell them yourself!” Keith shouts as he passes him, closing the distance between him and the edge of the cliff. He was fast, always faster than Shiro.

Still, Shiro shoots up from his position and hurls himself after Keith and over the edge. His body smashes into Keith’s as they tumble through the air. A wire shoots from Shiro’s belt. He wraps it around his waist as it sinks into the rock bed ahead. They fall and fall until the wire catches and painfully yanks them back upwards. 

Shiro’s left hand catches Keith’s. They dangle helplessly off the edge.

“Damn you,” Shiro mutters through clenched teeth as every muscle in his body strains.

“Let me go,” Keith asks calmly, softly. He’s ready for this. Ready to fall if it means saving everyone else, if it means saving Shiro.

Shiro heaves, his breath catching in his lungs “No, please no,” he begs. His fingers gripping tightly as Keith’s hand begins to slip with gravity and sweat. If only he had grabbed him with his right one. His prosthetic was stronger, so much stronger. It could hold him forever. It could.

“It’s okay.” Keith smiles at him, wind pulling at his hair, the moon reflecting in his eyes. “As many times as it takes.” 

It’s the phrase he muttered to Shiro, a lifetime ago, tucked away in the corner of a dark room. After Shiro’s mind had been pulled from his head and hastily shoved back in. After they took his arm and replaced it with something much deadlier. After they shaped him into the perfect monster. After Keith had risked everything to bring him back. After he pieced Shiro back together; slowly, carefully.

It wasn’t the first time Keith had saved him and with this promise, it wouldn’t be the last.

Shiro sobs, tears spilling down his cheeks. “Please-”

Keith’s fingers slip from Shiro’s and he falls and falls and falls, the smile never leaving his face.

Shiro opens his mouth to scream.

A sharp thunderclap booms as brilliant lightning lights up the sky.

 

 

 

 

Shiro jolts awake, his body floating in a shallow pool. His left hand tightens around nothing. In his right sits a glowing gem. Cold dread snakes its way through his veins, winding around each limb, until it punctures his heart. He falls back against the pond, the water splashing up into his mouth, his nose, his lungs. He weeps, choking on snot and water.

 

 

 

* * *

  

Hunk types quickly into the machine, readying the quantum tunnel, while Pidge finishes looking over Allura’s gear. With a pat on the back and a quick thumbs up, Allura steps into the center of the device.

“Ready?” Hunks asks. Allura nods.

Shiro steps towards her, carefully handing over the briefcase containing each stone. “Remember: right where we found them.”

Allura nods once more. “Aye aye, Captain.” She smiles, a brief attempt at humor to soothe her building nerves.

Hunk takes a deep breath and presses one final button. “Alright in 5, 4…” he counts down.

“You got this!” Pidge quips with a fist bump to the air. 

“See you in a minute,” Shiro says softy.

Allura smiles and with a flash she’s gone.

The three of them quietly stand there, anxiously counting in their heads. For all they know years could be passing for Allura as each second ticks by for them.

Pidge turns to Hunk. “Do you think it’ll work?” She asks nervously. Half of the machine is her own work yet she still stands there worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.

“It has to,” he answers.

“It has to,” Shiro repeats, firmly. They all sacrificed too much to get this far. It has to all have been worth it. 

They continue to wait, chirping birds and rustling leaves filling the tense silence. Shiro reaches sixty in his head right as Hunk’s watch beeps. Pidge twists her head to Hunk and then quickly back to the tunnel, her gaze sharp. She adjusts her glasses, as if some smudge is blocking Allura’s return. She’s not there. She was supposed to be there.

“Hunk?” Pidge asks, fear rising in her chest. He doesn’t respond.

“Hunk!” She shouts.

Hunk breaks from his frozen state, turning back towards the computer. He begins to type furiously.

Shiro steps closer to the machine. “She missed her mark?”

“She was supposed to be here!” Pidge cries. She flutters over to Hunk, peering over his shoulder as he continues to types.

“I’m working on it!” he responds, reaching up to quickly wipe away the growing sweat on his brow. His eyes shift back and forth from the screen to the empty device. “It doesn’t make sense, it doesn’t make sense…” he mutters under his breath.

Shiro turns to face the two scientists, worry etched deeply into his gaze. “She was supposed to-"

“I was supposed to what?” Allura asks, standing in the center of the device, a knowing smirk painted across her face. She reaches up to hit the button on her neck. The helmet folds back into her suit, her thick, silver hair tumbling down to her shoulders.

Shiro twists back towards the quantum tunnel, relief washing over him life a wave. She’s left the briefcase behind, but she hasn’t returned completely empty handed. Someone stands next to her, dressed in an identical suit.

“Sorry I’m late. There was one more thing I had to do,” she says with a smile. The person next to her reaches up to release their helmet. Black hair tumbles down this time. Black hair and sharp brows and those deep blue eyes that Shiro keeps spotting in his dreams.

It’s a mirage, some illusion, Zarkon’s final trick. It has to be. He watched him fall. He keeps watching him fall; the image playing in loops in his brain every moment he stays still for too long.

“Keith!” It’s Pidge who shouts it first. Shiro’s too busy keeping himself from suffocating. It feels as if a train has crashed into his chest, stealing all the air from his lungs. He can’t breathe, can’t breathe, can’t breathe.

“Shiro,” Keith whispers. Shiro can’t hear him, not over the blood rushing in his ears, but he watches his mouth form the name, something he thought he’d never have the chance to see again. Something he feared he would forget with time.

“Shiro,” he repeats, moving closer to him. The smaller man reaches out, his hands rising up to cradle his face. The cool metal of Keith’s suit presses into his cheeks, snapping Shiro from his  shock. With a sharp breath of air he collapses to his knees, pulling Keith down with him.

“H-how.. you.. I-” Shiro stutters, reaching out to touch Keith himself, to feel his skin against his own once more. Tears and snot are running down his face. When did he start crying?

With a quick shake of his head Keith laughs and presses his cheek further into the warmth of Shiro’s palm. His eyes briefly glance from Shiro to the side where Allura stands.

“I had some help,” Keith answers, the corner of his lip turning up.

Using his thumb, Shiro wipes away Keith’s own tears before they can fall too far. He pulls Keith closer to him, his hands snaking into his soft hair. He presses his forehead into Keith’s.

“You’re back,” Shiro says, as if he’s still trying to convince himself. 

Keith laughs again, a sound so prized and pure that Shiro wants to lock it away some place deep within his core; some place where no one else could reach and steal it away from him again.

“Happy to be back,” he says, a whisper of air across Shiro's face.

Shiro grins, squeezing his eyes shut. “You did it Keith, you saved everyone.” 

Keith pulls back slightly, shaking his head “We all did,” he states, his face strong. 

Shiro matches the intensity of his gaze, holding it. “Keith, you saved me.”

A slight flush spreads to the tips of Keith’s ears and dusts across cheekbones. He gleams, tucking his head into the crease of Shiro’s neck. Shiro’s arms wrap around him, holding Keith close; somehow pulling him in closer.

With his heart rattling loudly against his chest, Shiro presses his nose to the crown of his head. “I love you,” he whispers into his hair.

“I love you,” he repeats, louder this time, stronger, as if he’s finally letting himself admit it. He loves Keith. He always has. It has always been there, tucked away within his chest, rooted deep into his heart. For so long he was too afraid to look at it, to pull the feeling out and sincerely examine it. With Keith in his arms now, he can't help but feel regret; for all the years he lost to anxiety and fear and hallow traumas; for all the times Keith offered a rope to Shiro, a hand, an ear, a heart. He wants to change it, he's going to change it now. He's been given a second chance. One Shiro refuses to waste. 

"I love you, Keith," he repeats one more time, just because he can.

**Author's Note:**

> guess i have a thing for sheith constantly saving each other!!! (and then the occasional time allura has to step in 2 help)
> 
>  
> 
> [Find me on twitter!](https://twitter.com/bananuh_)
> 
> Thank you for reading! This is the first fic I've ever written so I'm still trying to figure out some kind of style and formatting but I really enjoyed the challenge and can't wait to write out some other AU's I have floating up in my head :-)


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